nana’s green tea SKY TREE
Tokyo, Japan / 2012

“Cloth”

Nanaha Corporation is a company that introduces “a new form of Japan” to the world through “matcha” (powdered green tea). They arrange high grade matchas in modern style and provide them as a menu such as matcha latte. And their intention is to make the space into a “contemporary style tea room”, not a “Japanese style tea room”.

Originally, Japanese architecture wasn’t a culture of walls. It was a culture of poles, floors and ceilings.  Therefore, the space was separated by paper doors called shoji or fusuma and silk cloth partitions called kicho. Such spaces made between the poles were called mado.  Moreover, since Japanese culture was that of za (sitting down on a floor), furniture such as chairs and desks were undeveloped.

This is the reason that I came up with an idea of constructing nana’s green tea Sky Tree Branch a cha-shitsu (tea room) just with traditional Japanese papers and cloths.

I just used benches and chairs made by layer of “cloths”, partitions formed by hanged “cloths” and walls decorated with “Japanese papers” in order to create a tea room with traditional materials and process.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto

< PRESS >
Shoten Kenchiku Aug. 2013 Issue
Japan Interior KAZARU Equal Books (South Korea) May 2013 Issue